Degrees :
B.A., University of Texas at El Paso
M.A., University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin

Biography / Academic Interests :
Professor Zavala is a native of Ciudad Juárez, on the Mexico-US border. He obtained a dual doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Austin (in Hispanic literature) and the University of Paris III, Sorbonne Nouvelle (in comparative literature), with the financial support of research fellowships from both institutions. He has taught both in the US and in France. Professor Zavala is interested in contemporary narrative of the north of Mexico, as well as post-boom fiction from South America. Before his academic career, Professor Zavala was a foreign correspondent in Washington, DC, covering international politics. He currently lives in St. George with his wife Sarah Pollack and nine-pound dog, Juan Rulfo.

Scholarship / Publications :
Dr. Oswaldo Zavala specializes in contemporary Latin American narrative. His article “El futuro que ya fue: Jorge Volpi y la novela histórica del presente” was included in the volume En busca de Jorge Volpi, published in Madrid in 2004. More recently, he published a book article on Javier Payeras’s Ruido de fondo (Guatemala, 2006) and a journal article on Mexican journalism and literature in the weekly magazine Proceso, where he contributes regularly. He is currently working on articles about Roberto Bolaño’s Los detectives salvajes (1998) and Daniel Sada’s Porque parece mentira la verdad nunca se sabe (1999). Zavala has also published short fiction in magazines and anthologies in Mexico.